How To Size Your Wetsuit For The Best Fit

How do you choose the right wetsuit to meet your needs? It’s a minefield out there, so many brands, so many styles of wetsuit, different thicknesses…fortunately for you, we have heaps of experience with all types of wetsuits and we can help ensure you get the perfect suit and the right fit.

Whether you are Male, Female or Grom, the below information should have you sizing your wetsuit perfectly and ensuring you get the best out of the suit.

Continue reading to find out how to know how your suit should fit, what thickness wetsuit you need and how this will affect the sizing. We’ll also point you to the best accessories to go with your new wetsuit, sizing guides and more!

How should my wetsuit fit?

When you try on a new wetsuit, especially a winter suit, it can feel tight and hard to get on, this is to be expected and is not necessarily anything to worry about. The key factor here is that the wetsuit should feel comfortable and not overtight so that it restricts movement. A suit that is too tight will mean you’ll expend more energy when paddling and so tire more quickly.

Once you have got yourself into your new suit there are some key areas to check to make sure you are snug in your new neoprene.

Check key the areas behind your knees and under your arms, these two areas are a great indicator as to whether the suit is a good fit.

A little space is fine but there should not be bagginess or excess neoprene in the areas, it’ll run and create a rash. Wetsuits do become more flexible when wet and will mould to the shape of your body so as we say a little space is fine.

Our video walks you through how your new suit should fit.

Once you have checked the knees and armpits, turn your attention to the wrist cuffs and the ankle cuffs.

The wetsuit should sit right on your ankle just covering your ankle bone and the same for your wrist, a little long on either is not a huge issue however any shorter maybe especially if you’re intending to use the wetsuit with boots and gloves in colder water.

There needs to be an overlap over the boots and gloves to create a seal to ensure warmth and prevent water ingress.

The other area that is vital is the lower back. The fit needs to be snug, the wetsuit should mirror the curve of your back into the hip area. This area is important because heat loss form the kidney are will accelerate if the fit is not good, and that means less water time.

Lastly, it’s always good to check how the suit is fitting on your neck. The seal here is key to ensure you do not get excess flushing (where water rushes down the neck and through the suit).

The same rule applies as with other areas of the body, a comfortable snug fit is what you are looking for, you shouldn’t feel like you are being strangled! The majority of modern wetsuits have a fluid neck seal that moves with you as you move your head, back in the day a lycra rash vest was essential to prevent the neck of the wetsuit cutting you to shreds luckily nowadays that is not the case.  

Using these steps should have you feeling like your new suit fits perfectly and confident it will be comfortable, unrestrictive, and long lasting! Please remember if you are ever unsure on this, just contact our team and we will help with any questions or queries you may have.

Does neoprene thickness affect the sizing?

Wetsuit thickness should not affect the size you buy, but it can affect the feeling of a suit.

What we mean by this is, if you are used to using thinner summer steamers and 3mm suits, when you first get a 5mm or thicker, the suit can feel very tight and a touch restrictive. This is 100% normal, the suit will give in flexibility and the thicker suit means you are toasty!

The sizing of a suit will not change for this, you want to match the size of your summer suits to your winter suits and vice versa. You do not need to compensate for a thicker suit at all.

Trying a chest zip for the first time?

In the last 5/6 years, chest zip and zip free wetsuits have really taken control of the market. The main reasons behind this are that chest or no zip options are warmer (less water ingress through the zip), less restrictive and a better fit.

When trying a chest/no zip wetsuit for the first time it can feel very alien to a back zip wetsuit. Pushing your head through a hole in the neoprene can feel restrictive and a little unnatural.

Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it! Once you’ve been through this a few times it normalises and will become second nature.

There is flexibility in this area of the wetsuit to ensure a comfortable fit once on. Once your head is through the neck should seal should sit quite high on your neck to ensure a good fit.

Check this once you have zipped the suit and tightened the toggle too.

Use both thumbs and hook up under your chin and pull back over your head, ten push the suit over one shoulder until it sits in the middle of your upper arm, you’ll then be able to wrestle the suit past your elbow.

The neck will inevitably let some water in, you’re wearing a wetsuit after all, not a drysuit but the flow of water will be minimal compared to a back zip wetsuit.

Getting out of the suit can prove a challenge but once you’ve learnt the technique its simple.

PS – If you are using an externally fitted hood, put your hood on first and pull the chest zip over this, this will feel very restricted on the hood and neck area but follow the above instructions and you will get this on.

Gloves or Mitts?

Choosing whether to don a pair of wetsuit gloves or mittens can come down to many factors. Firstly, it could be a personal choice of liking one or the other, but they also have benefits and disadvantages when compared to each other that can help choose what’s right for you.

What will a glove give you that a mitt wont? Clearly, from the design, you get much better dexterity and board feel from wearing wetsuit gloves. This can help if you have fiddly zips on your wetsuit, and allows you to throw up a “shaka” to your friend in the line-up!

One downside of a glove is warmth. There is no doubt gloves keep you warm, especially warmer than no gloves, but they are nowhere near as warm as a pair of wetsuit mitts.

Wearing Mitts or Mittens is the best way to ensure you have warm hands for even the coldest days. We would say from our experience, mitts are a must have for the coldest months, they are essential!

The downside to mitts is the reduced dexterity, but it’s a small price to pay for warm hands!

Both gloves or mitts need to fit right to be effective. Initially getting your hand in will be tight, be careful not to grab the glove and pull it on with fingernails digging in as this can damage the neoprene.

Once your hand is in, the glove should be a tight fit but the end of your fingers should not be pressing hard against the glove. You want your fingertips to either just touch the end or have a 1 or 2mm gap. This is the perfect fit!

If they are too small or big, they will not work, and you will get cold hands very quickly.

How to size a boot & pick a boot thickness?

Sizing your wetsuit boot is pretty easy. The best advice we can give is size your boot the same as your normal everyday show size. You will not need to change size depending on thickness of boot at all, and this is the most accurate way to get the best fitting boot for yourself.

If you are a half size in a shoe, we advise rounding this up, for example a size 8.5 shoe, would be best with a 9 in a wetsuit boot. To ensure the boots fit well, they like all wetsuit accessories, will be tight at first, again be careful when pulling these on, but once your foot is in, you want these to feel snug, but you do not want these to be too loose or tight.

If you have your toes pushing on the end of the boot, they are too small, or if they are almost flapping off, they are too big. A bad fit will mean cold feet, if they are too big they will fill with water and become heavy.

They key word here again is ‘snug’ not overly tight, or loose. Many wetsuit boots have Velcro straps across the arch of the foot to fine tune the fit of the boot, this is a great feature for anyone that has a narrower foot.

Moving from sizing to picking a thickness of boot, this all comes down to water temperature. If you are lucky enough to live in an area where the water doesn’t get too low on the thermometer, then a 3mm boot will likely see you through the season, even in Cornwall, a 3mm boot will get you through the colder months.

For us not as lucky, if you are surfing colder locations, then a 5mm or even 7mm boot will keep feeling in your feet!

The recent advancements in neoprene technology mean that the modern wetsuit is extremely flexible and ultimately easier to end up with a great fit.

Wetsuit companies don’t change their size regimes so if you are a medium, you’ll be a medium across the whole range.

We are here on the phone or via email to offer advice if needed so please do get in touch. We may be mainly online, but we have a showroom and changing rooms so feel free to come down and view our huge range of surfboards and try some wetsuits on if you’re in the mood!

As well as the extended warranty, we also offer 0% Finance to help spread the cost of a £400 wetsuit.